joe88 wrote:
Gary, really nice with the ZF lens! Which adapter are you using right now?

Nice Joe! I have seen so many good examples from the 50cron rigid. Must resist. I am using the Kipon adapter. I know I would almost always choose my M mount lenses over an adapter, SLR lens, and EVF anyday. It is more just to see how the results would look....

zhangyue wrote:
Thank you all, I appreciate.
As for 50asph, there are multiple reason for the feeling:
1. Hood is flimsy and not well designed. Now since I put a IR filter I no longer worry scratch front element.
2. Focus tab, affect handling and focus. I drop the lens during changing because I can't firmly hold it.
3. It has gone to leica twice since I own it to adjust focus. It is drift somehow. I feel there might some design flaw in mechanic of the lens that easily drift.
4. Stop down performance, TBH, it is more than I needed, but I have high expectation for it before I buy it. As mentioned earlier, at f5.6, my 50 year old rigid can outperform it at FC dip zone, to be fair, rigid is a great lens stop down.
5.Price, but this generally apply all the leica.
6. Bokeh, it can be boring, but I am keep changing taste myself on this, so I have to say I love it more and more.

Overall, I agree this is the best 50mm 1.4 lens. No question about it. But, as a tool, I have to evaluate it as a whole not just optics, hence for the mixed feeling.

1. I agree it's flimsy. however, i think it's a well-designed built-in hood; the twist-to-lock feature (also found in 75 APO, possible others...too lazy look up) is a neat feature I haven't seen in other non-Leica lenses with built-in hood...of course, I could be mistaken.
2. there are two camps on this. i guess. i personally isn't a fan of the Zeiss ZM tabs and like the tabs on the Leica lenses; you can use just your thumb or pinch one side. that said, i get that the focus tab sometimes gets in the way in just holding the lens because it's large.
3. the 50 ASPH has annoying field curvature, FYI...the drift that you see might be the FC (i'm speculating, of course).
4. it's optimized wide-open. FWIW it's better than any of the high-speed 50's (max f1.8 and higher) that i've tried over the years. YMMV.
5. :-)
6. bokeh is really subjective so whether I agree/disagree with this statement doesn't really count. :-)

i agree, it's the best 50mm f1.4 available *right now*...it will all change when the new Zeiss 55/1.4 comes out, though. not a real threat considering how damn huge it is..lol...

I think Michael is referencing a drift in the accuracy of the FLE relative to the main groups.

while we're talking about FC tho, the rigid has a substantial unsharpness donut due to field curvature. it is an interesting lens, but I found the f2 performance extremely lacking compared to a modern M mount 50, and I hated not having a tab (I had DR version). I agree it keeps contrast at very high frequencies in a way that the Japanese lens makers at the time were unable to replicate.

but, a flat field can lead to a boring look. I think the Lux ASPH excels at typical RF subject matter, like Michael's excellent picture of his daughter.

IMO the 50 Lux ASPH hood design is terrible for the way I handle lenses, which is to pull them out and put them back into the camera bag by holding the hood. The Lux's hood would be merely OK if it actually locked in place while extended, but it doesn't and when I'd be handling it, it would invariably be partially extended and give me a poor handle on the lens, particularly with gloves in the winter. Then I discovered after the hood FELL OFF my Lux, that the whole thing is held on with one TINY screw and what looks like some glue (that had dried up). The hood assembly also includes the front name ring and the filter thread, so after that fell off, I had to gaffer tape that part of the lens back on so that I could at least still use ND filters and a screw-on no-name hood. The lesson here is that continual stress on the front of the lens, such as handling via the lens hood or a screwed-on attachment, will very likely cause this failure.

Most of my other Leica lenses use screw-on metal hoods, which are great for my type of handling. The 28 Cron's clip on hood is O...K... but I fear it's starting to come apart too

Back to the Lux ASPH... I bought mine used and it arrived kind of wobbly. Leica serviced it and it was nice and tight. Now it's beginning to wobble again very slightly...

Edward, the ZM50P building shot looks good, can't really see anything wrong with it, actually a very nice shot! Also, nice pop and colors on the chair shot.
Joakim, the 2nd ZM18 shot is excellent, really like the composition with the curved waves leading up.
Dexter, thanks..hehe, that is a nice trike shot with an excellent lens
Leonas, really nice portrait with the 90AA.
Allen, its almost as if you have two personalities with the street shots and the still life abstracts, nice shot! Can tell you are having a good time shooting the Monochrom.
Phil, wow! my screen almost popped out at me, superb!

rscheffler wrote:
The Lux's hood would be merely OK if it actually locked in place while extended...
I tend to agree, the built in hood is a good concept but I would prefer if they could be twisted and locked in place. Many times shooting halfway, the hood would have collapsed back in to the body without knowing, and it happened on these lenses I used: 50Lux pre-ASPH & ASPH, Nocti 1.0, 75Lux, 50Cron

... but otherwise, lenses are supposed to be simple mechanical devices, except if they have a floating lens element. Here's a pic of a 35Cron 8 element under refurbishment, Michael would be interested?

Shot on a Ricoh GR, hope you don't mind me sharing. Also might be interesting to some of us, according to Youxin Ye, Leica has a history of making changes to cameras and lenses depending on batches, it is not necessarily newer serial # that is "better" mechanically, sometimes components or minor construction details change for reasons that makes things worse. On some of the older lenses such as the 50Cron Rigid, Youxin was telling me that a certain serial # series were the best constructed and with least problems, and it was not the last batch. The takeaway is, we should not rely on newer serial # to judge condition of Leica equipment. Case in point, the Leica M3, its still amongst the best made Leica M camera to date.

Dale, The hood can be personal opinion as you and some others seems like it, and Ron and myself and others not. The same thing with Tab. Usually, I need a tool to be reliable and robust to get my trust. The drift has nothing to do with FC, I bought it brand new, and it was OK with slightly back focus at mid range, then, the back focus become more and more to the point I need send to Leica. It is not easy to compensate, as I mentioned earlier that it can work at MFD, and slightly back focus at infinity, and back focus a lot at mid distance. After first service before I went back to China trip, It perform good at all distance. and then, Until I went to Florida trip, AFTER I come back, I notice it back focus again with tons of mis focused pictures. (I don't do Chimp in field) then I drop it because of Tab (my problem though), I have to send to Leica again. It is still with them. How could you rely on it unless I am with M240? But If I bring it with me in any trip in the future, I will test it the night before for each day out. After see many reports on this lens and 75cron, I think I am not alone. Long FL with FLE should be avoided!

Redisburning, 50cron Rigid is my work horse. It is in the other end of spectrum as reliable and dependable. IMO, very important for RF. WO is decent, Stop down is great, It doesn't have brilliance of modern Zeiss or Leica, and not any beautiful Bokeh. I have many Lens will outperform it sharpness at f2 or Bokeh at any distance. But It is a great tool let me focus on content than Lens itself. Some lens just get my love I guess. By putting a clamp on Hood, I never worry about it. Just focus on photography It will be my goto lens for next decade.

Mirek, with almost all my Leica R lens have pull out hood, I much prefer Zeiss approach on this. I need something can survive Bump and mishandling. I hate leave my cap on. Lens like 35cron R is very scary with front element easily be scratched with that pull out shallow hood.

Ron, I also like the Airport shots very much. the process is superb.
Allen, like that abstract shot.
Edward, I also like that BW building shot.
Phil, I agree with others about that BIKE shot, which 35lux ASPH, fle or prefle?
Joe, Thanks for the information about Leica old lens. It seems match my experience in my PM to you Buy from established member here is always a good idea than B&S member only. Like that Lib shot of your wife and son. sweet moment.
Gary, the first two have really good composition and color.

zhangyue wrote:
Yeh ,but I can't use M lens on DSLR, and won't use SLR lens on M. So, not much fun to me

yeah, i was saying that it was more fun when you could argue safely knowing nobody could ever prove you wrong since the lenses couldn't be compared directly. on a related note, i compared the 50 lux pre-asph and jupiter-3 to my rokkor 58/1.2 at infinity yesterday and was rather disappointed by the results.

oh, and regarding hoods, i much prefer collapsing ones because any other type of hood will stay in the box for me.

sebboh wrote:
yeah, i was saying that it was more fun when you could argue safely knowing nobody could ever prove you wrong since the lenses couldn't be compared directly. on a related note, i compared the 50 lux pre-asph and jupiter-3 to my rokkor 58/1.2 at infinity yesterday and was rather disappointed by the results.

oh, and regarding hoods, i much prefer collapsing ones because any other type of hood will stay in the box for me.

I assume Rokkor win? It doesn't matter now as I just bought that Rokkor (It has been in my mind for long enough) even before my Canon body in.

As for Hood, I am not surprised and very tolerable to individual's choice

zhangyue wrote:
I assume Rokkor win? It doesn't matter now as I just bought that Rokkor (It has been in my mind for long enough) even before my Canon body in.

As for Hood, I am not surprised and very tolerable to individual's choice

yeah, the rokkor handily beats the two fast range finder 50s in sharpness and contrast at infinity. in the corners the rokkor is sharper at f/1.2 than the lux is at f/5.6. i would chalk it up to the trouble with rangefinder lenses on the NEX-7 except that i threw the 40 cron into the mix too and it did much better despite being more likely to have corner issues on the NEX-7 on paper. the jupiter-3 is actually sharper in the center at f/1.5 than the lux at f/1.4 but that changes a lot at f/2 and below where the lux is sharper everywhere.

hope you like the rokkor btw. did you get the metal focus ring version or rubber?